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A Japanese doctor infected with tuberculosis examined more than 600 patients without wearing a mask, an official said Wednesday.
The doctor, who is in his 50s and runs a clinic in Ito, Shizuoka Prefecture, began displaying symptoms of the potentially lethal airborne disease in mid-August, but brushed them off as a common cold, the health authority official said.
He continued to see patients, without wearing a face mask, until he was diagnosed with tuberculosis earlier this month.
During that time he had contact with 658 people, including family members, clinic staff and more than 600 patients, five of whom were children, the authority said.
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that attacks the lungs and can be transmitted by coughing or sneezing. It kills approximately a million people around the world every year, according to the World Health Organization.
The disease is found all over the planet, but is more common in the developing world, where it also has a much higher mortality rate.
Letters were being sent to all patients examined by the doctor, the health authority spokesman said, adding that the names of the clinic and the doctor were not being disclosed.
"It is only 10 to 15% of people who suffer actual symptoms after they are infected with tuberculosis," he said.
"It also takes two to three months before they start showing these symptoms," he said, when pressed over why the authority had not acted more quickly in alerting people to their possible infection.
The doctor has since been hospitalised for treatment.
Globally, 87% of those diagnosed with TB were successfully treated in 2010, the last year for which data is available on the WHO website.
© Japan Today
23 Comments
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papigiulio
Tuberculosis? Aren't kids getting shots for that when they are young?
AramaTaihenNoYouDidnt
WTF...!? “It is only 10 to 15% of people who suffer actual symptoms after they are infected with tuberculosis,” he said.
“It also takes two to three months before they start showing these symptoms,” he said, when pressed over why the authority had not acted more quickly in alerting people to their possible infection.
and THIS should not be a concern...!!?? it KILLS - for crying out loud!!
wildwest
TB or not TB that was the question. Hope they're ok. The article could have given more information about the difference between TB and the common cold symptoms and then the outcome of the disease treated or not, to save me going to wiki.
Fed Up
This so-called doctor should pay for all the fees associated with anyone he infected and possibly infected, in addition to losing his license to practice medicine forever!
Get Real
More to the point, where did he contract TB?
GalapagosnoGairaishu
Probably from a patient. That was what killed Russian playwright Chekov, who worked as a doctor in a TB sanatorium.
Frungy
I agree, this is the real question. Did he visit Africa and come into contact with one of the resistant strains? Or did he see a tourist who had tuberculosis? Or did he perhaps just go into an old building that had residual TB in it?
Calm down, even the most aggressive strains take years to kill, and you can see unmistakeable symptoms for a long time before that (like coughing up blood). If someone died from a regular strain of TB today it would represent a massive failure on the part of the health system.
... the treatment resistant strains are something to worry about though (multiple drug resistant tuberculosis, aka MDRTB)
Disillusioned
They did a study on that TB vaccination in India and 60% of those immunized still got TB. This is why my kids don't have a TB tattoo. Developed countries have been fighting to wipe this out for the last century and many countries have been successful, obviously, not Japan.
The Chronic
Article states: Globally, 87% of those diagnosed with TB were successfully treated in 2010.
So what happened to the other 13%?? Dead? So 13 out of every 100 people die? Not very good odds I would say.
lucabrasi
@Disillusioned
No country has been successful in eradicating TB. The current rate of infection in Europe is 63 per 100,000 people. Hardly "wiped out".
Nipporinoel
This is most " regretable" but I'm sure they will " sincerely reflect on the situation", "collect all relevant information swiftly " and "take appropriate action speedily ", "to avoid public confusion" - "we will consider forming an expert panel.
billyshears
Although the risk is comparatively small, there is no need to travel abroad from Japan to contact TB; a crowded rush-hour train will do. There were approximately 26,000 NEW cases here in 2011 (4,000 more than Haiti), including the drug-resistant variety.
Disillusioned
Lucabrasi - You are wrong! There is a little place called, Australia that has no TB! Perhaps you have heard of it? The only TB cases in Australia are brought in by immigrants and are very quickly isolated.
davestrousers
Well Europe is not a country.. not yet anyway. Some countries in Western Europe came very close to wiping it out. Now there are parts of London that have higher infection rates than India.
Michael Grant
Doctor Ewwww!!!
Kent Mcgraw
Wild west, TB symptoms include coughing up small amounts of blood and might sweats, sometimes associated with weight loss. The tell-tale signs are the coughing up blood and night sweats. I was a Registered Nurse and worked with many TB patients. The masks that people use here are ineffective when it comes to TB. One must wear a special mask that is actually difficult to breathe with and one must be fitted so no air leaks. The symptoms sometimes do not show for up to one year as it is a slow growing myco-bacterium. People in health care are required to have a TB test annually. It takes 6 months for the test to come back positive if you were infected. A person must go through 6 weeks of antibiotics which are specific for the bacteria before they can be considered non-contagious.They must also be in a negative air pressure room for 6 weeks while taking the medication and then remain on the medication for months.
LFRAgain
Disillusioned,
Lucabrasi is correct. There is no country in the world that has completely eradicated TB. Australia, the example you offered, currently sees an annual TB infection rate of 4~5 cases per 100,000 population. While indeed small, thanks to Australia's aggressive anti-TB programs, this rate is still not zero, as you would suggest. Nor is it zero anywhere in the industrialized world.
Cos
Not necessarily due to the illness (100% end up dead), from what I get the 13% remain chronically sick.
Jack Stern
No one seemed to touch on the doctor who said he thought it was a cold. So it's fine to give your cold to patients? Not very smart, doctor.
AkashiAussie
Didn't you know... The mesh in Japanese face masks is so fine that it prevents the spread of microscopic viruses and bacteria...
Frungy
Yet you'll probably be the first to complain when all the doctors are off sick because they're feeling a bit under the weather, or when hospitals are closed because there aren't any doctors.
Doctors come into close contact with literally hundreds of sick people every day. Even with precautions the doctor still needs to touch the patient (ever heard of viral shedding?), look down their throat (close enough for their breath to carry bacteria and viruses), etc, etc.
Taking care of themselves? You try to find time to eat, sleep and exercise right when you're working double shifts because there aren't enough doctors. Doctors also don't make that much when you consider that they have to study until they're about 25, the do an internship, and then for their first five years or so of their working lives they're still paying back loans. Most are lucky to break even by 33 years old... by which point most of their buddies who chose careers like finance or marketing are driving porches and "executive manager of ...". Yeah, so even if they had the time a lot don't even have the funds to eat right.
A doctor becoming sick is nearly inevitable, and if most doctors took sick leave when they got the snuffles... there would be NO doctors.
So perhaps, maybe, possible, you should quit griping about a doctor who came into work even though he felt sick and rather be grateful he was there at all. Sure he put 500 people at risk, but about 5 of those people would DEFINITELY have died if he wasn't there.
lucabrasi
@Disillusioned
Not according to the Australian Department of Health, quite the opposite in fact:
"Aboriginal people are at greater risk for developing active TB than non-Aboriginal Australian born and this likely reflects socioeconomic, nutritional and health factors. While the number of cases of active TB recorded is small, their rate of disease is estimated to be about 15–20 times higher than for the non-Aboriginal Australian born."
AkashiAussie
Frungy, I doubt five of those people would have died. Japanese people go to the doctor for even the smallest ailments and doctors spend their time handing out bucket loads of unneeded medication which they receive commission for. If they really were sick they would have called an ambulance, or they'll just call the ambulance anyway because they're too lazy to get the bus or ride their bike down to the clinic. Maybe the doctor had some insurance claims come in which they can charge top dollar for and didn't want to take the day off? Once registered as a doctor in Japan, doctors are not required to sit any further test or participate in any professional development which is why you have some dinosaurs getting around with no idea about advances in medicine beyond 1984. For such an advanced country, the ability of some doctors is woeful.